Friday, March 28, 2008

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Conservative Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot says he's full of admiration for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last week stood with the Dalai Lama and ripped the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. Chabot, OH-01, serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and issued a press release that says he "praised" Pelosi. He is not often prone to use language that speaks highly of Democrats, but Chabot says she was right to stand up for human rights.

"Freedom is a non-partisan matter. The Chinese government must respect the rights and human dignity of the Tibetan people."

Chabot, who represents Cincinnati's West Side, chairs the Congressional Taiwan Caucus. He has been a critics of China for years. He says China's actions in Tibet are "one more example of why the U.S. State Department should not have removed China from its list of the world's worst human rights offenders."

Earlier this month, China seems to have gotten a break on the annual report of human rights abuses in nation's across the world. There is widespread speculation that the Bush Administration eased up on its criticism of China because it didn't want to embarrass that nation ahead of this summer's Beijing Olympics.